By John Cheves
Lexington Herald-Leader
LEXINGTON, Ky. — The big anti-crime bill of this legislative session would “result in significant long-term increases in operational costs,” eventually adding hundreds of millions of dollars in expenses for a state that already spends more than $830 million a year on its Department of Corrections, according to a new analysis.
The Kentucky House voted 93-to-1 to pass House Bill 422 on Feb. 24 and send it to the Senate, where it awaits committee assignment.
Republican lawmakers filed the bill in response to last year’s controversial early release of Ronald Exantus, who killed 6-year-old Logan Tipton in the boy’s Versailles home.
The House bill, which would be called Logan’s Law, would narrow the state’s insanity defense in criminal cases; lengthen prison sentences for some of the most serious crimes; and respect the Parole Board’s opinion when it ruled unanimously that inmates should not be released early on mandatory reentry supervision.
The Department of Corrections issued a corrections impact statement on March 6 that analyzed the bill and estimated its potential costs.
Based on the current average cost of $42,488 a year to incarcerate a person, every 10 additional years behind bars for an inmate will cost $424,880, according to the analysis.
However, as inmates age in prison, they become less healthy and require regular medical care, raising the average cost to $57,815 a year, the analysis stated.
One section of the bill addressing Kentucky’s 715 inmates serving life with parole sentences would add 10 more years before parole eligibility, at a collective long-term cost of between $303 million and $413 million, according to the analysis. Kentucky state prisons get 33 new “lifers” annually, on average, the analysis stated.
Capital offenders also would serve 10 more years before being eligible for parole. Kentucky currently has 493 inmates serving life with parole for a capital offense, for a collective long-term cost of between $209 million and $285 million, according to the analysis.
The Corrections Department gets about 15 more people every year who were convicted of a capital offense and received a sentence of life with parole eligibility, according to the analysis.
“These costs would not be realized immediately, but costs would be incurred in future fiscal years and would continue to compound as new offenders are sentenced under the revised statute,” it continues.
The department said it would spend about $1 million on 127 inmates who would each serve 180 more days in custody if the bill became law and they were ineligible for early release on mandatory reentry supervision, the controversial program that paroled Exantus.
Other expenses in the bill that were noted but not assigned price tags: incarcerating more people with mental illness or intellectual disability; requiring more prison sentences to be served consecutively, one after another, instead of concurrently; and expanding the availability of life in prison without the possibility of parole to more offenses, such as attempted murder of a first responder, a crime for which 30 people are currently serving time, according to the analysis.
“Overall, this legislation would result in longer incarceration periods for a significant number of offenders,” the analysis stated.
“It would also increase the controlled intake of jail populations as offenders await transfer to adult institutions and creates a corresponding need for additional bed space within the state correctional system.”
The state of Kentucky incarcerates more than 19,000 people, roughly the same as the population of the city of Winchester, the seat of Clark County. They are housed in 14 public and private prisons, with spillover in county jails that are paid by the Department of Corrections to hold lower-level felons.
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